Number of Billion Dollar US IPOs Falls Far Behind Private Rounds

Private companies are raising funds from investors in multibillion-dollar rounds at a quicker pace than those opting for similarly sized US IPOs, as public markets struggle to attract fast-growing artificial intelligence startups and aspiring-tech giants.

There have been twice as many fundraising deals of $1 billion or more this year for firms without a public listing than US IPOs raising that amount, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and PitchBook. With blockbuster private funding rounds for companies from OpenAI to Databricks sending their valuations soaring, a growing number are able to nab as much cash as they desire without a listing.